blogs.oracle.com, Oracle Ace, OTN, does any of ...

Doug's Oracle Blog

I actually woke up early today to write this blog as I wanted to sleep on it first and blogging on-site is a real no-no. Anyway ...

Many of you will remember the ongoing shenanigans around Justin Kestelyn's complaints about how Oracle is perceived by the Web 2.0 community. I had my little rant and, having thought it through for longer and talked to a few friends, had already been planning on revisiting the subject soon with some new thoughts. (This could take a while, so I might spread it over two parts.)

"Hell, I'm still trying to figure out why they yanked my blog ref from blogs.oracle.com"

I suggested Kevin get in touch with OTN but he was right to point out that it's not entirely obvious who you would contact if you want to raise something like this. In the end, Kevin blogged about it and he's on there now. Whatever the criteria for inclusion might be, it's blindingly obvious that Kevin meets them.

He was labelled a 'DBA' at first, but I see that's been changed to 'Architect' now. Personally, as a DBA, I thought the DBA moniker was an unexpected promotion for him and Mogens Norgaard! Anyway, enough of the fun, there are some important issues here in Kevin's genuinely interesting blog. I'm going to deal with his blog bottom-to-top, because I feel like it!

So, the popularity contest ...

What does that Technorati sample in Kevin's blog say to me? In the end, the natural democracy (anarchy?) of the net will win through. Because both Jonathan Lewis and Kevin are writing interesting things that people want to read and then tell their friends and colleagues about, they'll become popular quite naturally and, as Kevin points out, very quickly. Being on blogs.oracle.com or otnsemanticweb might bring in a few readers here and there, but I suspect word of mouth is more important. The public get what the public want (even if it happens to be to their detriment sometimes) and the Oracle community can recognise when someone knows what they're talking about. Who's a better judge of Kevin's community contribution - OTN or the community at large?

Who really cares if your blog is included on blogs.oracle.com or not? People are never going to believe this, but I can only tell you the truth. I'm spectacularly uninterested in my Technorati 'ranking'. The only time I'm really aware of it is when Andy C mentions this stuff occasionally - that man is obsessive! Is it really so weird to just write what you want to write, have a good time doing it and occasionally help someone a little bit (although I tend to leave that to others who do the job better)? It's what millions of 'Indie' bands do, as well as the more natural bed-fellows of bloggers - fanzine writers. They write for their own little publications because they like it that way and don't *want* a job with 'Rolling Stone' or the 'NME'.

Actually, I have a theory about this. Maybe part of the reason I'm within a million miles of the 'Top 10' of Oracle blogs is precisely because I *don't* care too much? There's a weird, contrary logic in there somewhere. The only action I can ever remember taking to promote this blog was to get syndicated on orablogs.com and if there's anyone who really got this community going, it was Brian Duff. Otherwise people might never have known about some of the blogs that were out there.

There's only one thing I worry about with my blog - the lack of technical content - and I have plans to rectify that.

Even that's interesting, though, because maybe the reason people read this blog is precisely because it doesn't have the 'authority' or 'technical content' of other blogs, but because everyone just wants a bit of fluff! (Or should that be 'fur'?) As Kevin finishes ....

P.S. I should have mentioned this before. I'm working at a big finance company with no time during the day to blog, deal with personal email or respond to blog comments. So, if it takes a while for me to catch up with those things, please don't be offended, I have normal life to deal with too

blogs.oracle.com ... part 2
OK, I finally have a few technical things worth blogging about, so let me get this non-technical one wrapped up first. Here's part 1.The other part of Kevin's blog that was very relevant to my recent musings was the section titled 'Aristocracy or Meritoc

Brian's orablogs.com blog aggregator is really keeping the community going and it's a great place for a new blog to get some attention that they are "there" now.

I also have to confirm that blogs.oracle.com doesn't really bring a lot of users, most of my readers are coming from Google. But maybe blogs.oracle.com helps a little bit to get a better search ranking (trusted site)...

Funny to read that we are on the same mind set again. I had a little different starting point (for issuing the same points), but I concur with your ramblings (anyway also too busy with work and not enough "real" technical content posted yet)

I take exception to your bold assertion that I am somehow obsessed by blog statistics, traffic metrics, inbound links, affiliate marketing programs and Adsense. This is very unfair and completely untrue.

In fact, the statement is libelous and you will be hearing from my lawyers shortly.

Thats just 22 from blogs.oracle.com and 6700 from Google. I guess Google has more influence in driving Oracle related visitors than the blogs page on Oracles site.

I think the issue Justin should look at is "what" is the Oracle blogging community, what is its purpose, what does it do... the answer is most likely that its not a marketing machine for Oracle... its open debate, comment, opinion... community. Whilst that may not have the recognition Justin thinks it hasnt got its still a very large community. my site gets over 6000 visitors a day and over 3800 unique visitors, thats just one Oracle related site, that shows a big interest in Oracle security to me.

I think the community is there, maybe the measurements and recognition is not as evident as it seems but its there.

Thanks for your reply. I agree, maybe the point is "who are the web 2.0 cognoscenti" and do we really care who they are. the evidence is that there is a big ground swell of interest in discussing Oracle products/topics and does it really matter they recognise it. what difference does that make to the man in the street or to Oracle. what is web 2.0 anyway but a way for the "in" sites like digg, flikr.... to group themselves together?

Doug,
I think most of us have various reasons for blogging. I started because I wanted a venue to kind of put down my thoughts and vent some useless stuff. Got a bit scared when Tom Kyte mentioned my blog and wondered how I am going to be able to keep up or blog about topics of interest.

Right now, I think it's fun when I get the time to do it.

BTW, I would also give credit to Eddie Awad for also helping to keep the Oracle community going.

I like reading your blogs 'coz it's real and geniune as some folks have exterior motives for blogging.

Absolutely! We have various reasons why we read them, too, which dictates our favourites. As long as your reasons for blogging are true to yourself, someone will pick up on it and enjoy it.

BTW, I would also give credit to Eddie Awad for also helping to keep the Oracle community going.

Yep, that was a big oversight on my part. Because I was aware of orablogs.com first, I tend to be stuck in that mind-set.

I like reading your blogs 'coz it's real and geniune ...

That's also why I rush to read your blog (and I'm not sucking up, there). High rankings, deep content, vendor approval ... none of those things count as much as hearing a voice that rings true with your own experience. As a guy who spends a lot of his time in big organisations, trying to keep on top of patching and interviewing woefully bad candidates, your blog rings very true to me.

In fact, for all my bitching, I've read a number of blogs this week that I really enjoyed (and that's the point). I was just waiting for the weekend to talk about them ...

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For the avoidance of any doubt, all views expressed here are my own and not those of past or current employers, clients, friends, Oracle Corporation, my Mum or, indeed, Flatcat. If you want to sue someone, I suggest you pick on Tigger, but I hope you have a good lawyer. Frankly, I doubt any of the former agree with my views or would want to be associated with them in any way.